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Insider buying increased last week with insiders buying $79 million of stock compared to $43.91 million in the week prior. Selling decreased with insiders selling $1.84 billion of stock last week compared to $2.43 billion in the week prior.

Sell/Buy Ratio: The insider Sell/Buy ratio is calculated by dividing the total insider sales in a given week by total insider purchases that week. The adjusted ratio for last week dropped down to 23.26. In other words, insiders sold more than 23 times as much stock as they purchased. The Sell/Buy ratio this week compares favorably with the prior week, when the ratio stood at 55.46. We are calculating an adjusted ratio by removing transactions by funds and companies and trying as best as possible only to retain information about insiders and 10% owners who are not funds or companies.

Insider Sell Buy Ratio May 13, 2016

Note: As mentioned in the first post in this series, certain industries have their preferred metrics such as same store sales for retailers, funds from operations (FFO) for REITs and revenue per available room (RevPAR) for hotels that provide a better basis for comparison than simple valuation metrics. However metrics like Price/Earnings, Price/Sales and Enterprise Value/EBITDA included below should provide a good starting point for analyzing the majority of stocks.

President James Patrick Reilly acquired 900 shares, paying $4.79 per share for a total amount of $4,311. Mr. Reilly increased his stake by 2.87% to 32,238 shares with this purchase.

We were a little surprised to see this purchase by Dr. Frost as most of his large purchases in the past were related to the healthcare company Opko Health (OPK) where he serves as the Chairman and CEO. This is his largest purchases in IDI since we started tracking insider transactions back in 2010 and leaves him with a 34% stake in the company following the purchase.

Dr. Frost began his career in 1972, when he bought Key Pharmaceuticals along with Michael Jaharis and turned the company around. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Key Pharmaceuticals until 1986 when it was acquired by Schering-Plough for $587 million. After the acquisition of Key Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Frost founded the IVAX Corporation in 1986 along with Dr. Jane H. Hsiao, the current CTO of Opko Health.

IVAX specialized in generic drugs and played a significant international role in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe. IVAX was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) in 2006. Dr. Frost became Vice Chairman of Teva after the acquisition of IVAX in 2006. In 2010, he was named Chairman of the Board of Teva and was reelected to the position in May 2012.

Chief Legal Officer Nicholas R. Singh acquired 135,600 shares of this mortgage REIT, paying $10.85 per share for a total amount of $1.47 million. Mr. Singh increased his stake by 45.02% to 436,800 shares with this purchase. 5,200 of these shares were purchased indirectly in a 401(k) Plan.

President NA Card Products Todd House sold 3,000 shares for $151.05, generating $453,164 from the sale.

Director Richard Macchia sold 1,200 shares for $151.19, generating $181,431 from the sale.

Global Chief Information Officer John A. Reed sold 620 shares for $151.98, generating $94,229 from the sale. 285 of these shares were sold as a result of exercising options immediately prior to the sale.

Director Robert E. Price sold 220,844 shares of this discount warehouse grocer for $84.00, generating $18.55 million from the sale. These shares were sold indirectly through various trusts and entities.

Disclaimer Clients of Signal Partners, LLC and I may have positions in any of these stocks at any time. Please do your own due diligence before buying or selling any securities mentioned in this article. We do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of the content or data provided in this article.

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